can I ask you a question

Have you asked God for what you want?

Sure, you've talked about it ad nauseam to yourself. To your friends. Again to yourself. Maybe you've talked about it with God. 

But have you asked??

Ask. Put yourself out there, and ask.

It's a simple step, but too often glossed over. We want, we want, we want, we want want want want want want. Wanting isn't always wrong; it isn't always right. Depends on what we want. So we scheme, strategize, plot, maneuver, overthink, obsess to get what we want. 

Why should we ask God for what we want? What does asking God do for us?

1) It reminds us that so much is out of our control. We're not in charge. 

2) It's vulnerable to ask. It means we might hear a 'no.' And some of us would rather do anything than risk hearing a 'no.' Truth be told, sometimes what we want is something we know we know is not good for us, that would do us harm. But we still want it. Hearing no can hurt.

3) Asking can show how much and why we want something. When we have to ask, we may have to explain why we want what we want. Luke 11 has this parable about asking God for something. "...yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs (Luke 11:8)" 

You know this to be true. You ask your parents for something one time but never bring it up again, they would reasonably infer that you want it, but not too badly. So it wouldn't matter much if you did not receive it. 

But if you asked. And you asked again. And you asked again. And you talked about it, heard questions, answered questions, and still kept asking. What does this show? It shows that this is something you really, really want. It matters enough for you to show persistence. 

So ... what do you have to ask God for? What do you want? 

Speak up, and ask.

did God just open (or close) that door?

Maybe you've heard about what God does with doors.

God opens doors. Or God closes doors.

 

We walk through doors that God opens for us. We walk away from the doors that God closes to us. Sounds fairly simple, doesn't it?

 

Perhaps. But not always.

 

For most of my life, I've heard this paradigm in the context of how to discern situations and life choices. And for most of my life, this made sense to me. 

 

But then I heard a talk once that challenged my reflex thinking, and I recorded the quote and wrote it down because it rocked me that much.

 

"Christians get a little too caught up in the open door, closed door thing. They say, 'Well, I'm praying about getting married, or trying some new job, or learning some new skill, and I'm going to see if the Lord opens a door or closes a door.

 

You know, sometimes the door is open. Sometimes the door is closed. And sometimes you need to tear the door off the hinges. 

 

Sometimes you have to say, 'This is a closed door, and God isn't going to make it easy for me.' You look at all the quest stories in the Bible, time after time, God throws up one obstacle, maybe two obstacles, puts people off, makes them face some barrier, and after they face that barrier and persevere, then God gives it to them." -Dr. DD

 

This continually encourages me.  

God's plans for life seldom fit so simply into a closed door/open door paradigm.

 

As I've accrued life and experiences, I'd rarely describe God's will for my life feeling as easy as waltzing through a wide-open door. In fact, few things in life are that easy (except of course, walking through actual doors, particularly supermarket doors that open as you approach). 

 

Usually, it feels like...

-building the door frame,

-securing the frame in place for the door,

-sanding the frame,

-pulling out the splinters accrued from sanding the frame,

-finding the tools to build the door,

-finding the lumber,

-and THEN getting to work on building a door.

 

A takeaway point from this?

 

Often, what's best for life and what God desires for me will involve actual struggle, because ... it's actual life. It will take real effort, and it'll rarely be as easy as walking through an open door. It'll require more of me (and of you) than that. 

 

Give this some thought. 

Luke 11:5-13